Friday, November 16, 2012

Anonymous said...
Prices are competitive with Whole Foods on premium items. Meat and Seafood, produce looked great. Staples and generics will still be bought at Key and the Associated. Nice addition to the hood, in my opinion.

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Anonymous said...
I went there last night. It's a little confusing to navigate -- one guy was wandering around trying to find the checkout counters. The people who worked there were very friendly. Overall good selection, and a nice addition to the neighborhood.

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RyanAvenueA said...
We went in last night to check it out and I have to say I loved it. Despite being a year behind schedule, the meat counter alone is worth it. Plus a great selection of pre-made food if you want to throw together a quick dinner. Definitely on the higher end with the prices, so I agree the staples can be bought elsewhere, but it's closer than Whole Foods.

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Anonymous said...
"one guy was wandering around..." that's because zombies are and will be patronizing this.

For those looking for good meat, I say bring back mom and pop butcher shops. Personalize attention, my former butcher had a MFA in writing, and a poet. Not only he was knowledgeable about the cuts of meat, he often would recite a poem, in correlation to the type of cut that was purchased. Character.Soul.Personality. Try having that from this generic suburbanize, mallify, Duane Readeesque market. Catalog that for your thoughts.

Another overpriced grocery store for the EV's new young professionals, where more than half of the food will probably go to waste and get thrown away--because there is way too much over-priced grocery-store food in the area. (Whole Foods is notorious for throwing out tons of food, but of course they blame health regulations for this. And yet they deliberately over-order produce and fish so it looks pretty & plentiful on the shelves.)

Another store that reinforces the system of the global food supply being controlled by a small number of soul-less corporations and sold at a premium to selfish yuppies. Meanwhile, many Americans live in "food deserts" where there are only fast-food joints and no grocery stores and millions around the world are still starving due to food shortages.

Yep, I'll go there for my two big yuppie foodie indulgences, Pralus chocolate and Victory beers. Otherwise, it's Key for me. Hopefully this makes them put their prices down a bit, maybe add back some cashiers on the night shift and do something to make them happier? Oh, and seriously, Key, time to raise your game on the rotting, overpriced and unmarked produce thing, kay?

won't go. too bougie and caters exclusively to yuppies. no variation in price points. plus i don't like the upscale/modern look of it. i oppose elitist places that continue the trend of making living in the east village prohibitively expensive. vote with your dollars to keep the affordable places running - and the working & artistic classes in the hood. i am not broke and i enjoy nice food - but consider that irrelavant to the bigger picture & long term cultural implications. i'd rather have a diverse neighborhood than organic produce (and i REALLY like organic produce). but it's far better to support CSA's and farmers markets anyway, the more local the better. these are pre-apocalyptic times we are living in. the time to get your priorities & support system in order is now...

I refuse to be price-gouged by elitist grocery stores when I buy produce. They are selling tiny bundles of organic kale for $4 at Union Market. Give me a break! I sometimes go all the way over to the wholesale produce market at the Chelsea Market and I live on Ave. C. And I really like the farmer's market on Sundays on Tompkins Square.

For me, it's not an aesthetic thing. Union Market and Whole Foods offer a more pleasant shopping experience than a grubby mass-market chain like Key Foods, and they have a lot more variety than a small co-op. I could probably afford to pay the markup if I wanted to.

But having Key and Associated, etc. does matter if you value diversity, because your neighbors living on Social Security, disability, public assistance, etc., can't afford the markup. And that's part of the point of those high-end chains -- a better shopping experience for a better class of people. The exclusion is subtle, but it's there and it's part of the package.

I'm not surprised to see some cranky comments against it here. Yes, it's a little pricey and caters to young professionals. I'll still go to the farmer's market on Sunday. But for a last minute dinner in the middle of the week, it's nice to have a place to go to for some decent looking vegetables and a quick rotisserie chicken. And it's better than having another bar or shitty tapas place...

I don't understand the negativity. What's wrong with more choice, and less vacant store fronts? Why does diversity exclude people who didn't live here 10 years ago? While bodegas are convenient, they don't sell healthy food. That leaves only 2 other supermarkets down here, and Fine Fare on Ave C is no better than a bodega, when it comes to all the processed foods they stock.

G-d forbid, but should there be another power outage, and these start-ups and parents funded yunnies won't know what to eat or how to survive. The past storm showed their true characters (little or none that they have) clustering around Starbucks or Duane Reade for that familiar sterile settings, zombies that they are.

East Village used to be a neighborhood for the creatives: they got by and strived with little or nothing that they had or access to. Nowadays, these investor or trust-fund babies consume and everything and everyone have to be bought. "Their hidden, deep belief in their own worthlessness makes them strive for high-status jobs and condo lifestyles, where a false sense of power temporarily lifts them up." And that's where stores such as Union Market and Whole Foods come in: to cater to these insignificant folks and give them a temporary sense of self-worth.

To the haters that talk about the loss of mom and pop shops...This is a family owned grocery, not a nationwide chain. It's not a global conspiracy to gentrify the LES and end rent stabilization. It's just a market.

To the lovers of this place, Union Market being family-owned is like Johnson & Johnson being family owned. Enjoy your overpriced trendy kale, petite ficelle sandwiches, D.O.P San Marzano tomatoes..., while you can 'cause once the apocalypse comes, you'll be eating canned food like the rest of us. You may think your better than everyone else after consuming those, but they're all the same when it comes out. Oh, and kale are fed to the pigs.

Oh, Ghod, can we ban that stupid "Yunnies" word already? If you're sitting around clacking on the comments section of a neighborhood blog, you're pretty freaking privileged and your right to dehumanize a faceless monolith of people based on their socioeconomic status has been revoked. Criticize away, but don't dehumanize.

Union Market has worn-out their welcome in SoSlope that they're now invading the East Village. May seem nice at first but wait until they start cutting costs and those overpriced product will become more overpriced but quality goes down, and they start hiring Duane Reade like staff.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/union-market-brooklyn-2

But most of you won't be here to see it then, since you guys are only here for a transitory period of time, just to trash the place and move on to the next it neighborhood.

Considering what it replaced, a lousy bodega and a weird lobster restaurant, it's a plus for the neighborhood. It's a little late in the game to be complaining about yuppie gentrifiers in this hood. I was a yuppie gentrifier when I moved here a decade ago but now I have two kids and this is my neighborhood. And yes, I eat organic kale while supporting all sorts of local businesses. Why the hate?

I agree it's a bit hard to navigate & the prices are a bit high but I will definitely shop here from time to time. You don't have to be a young professional or have a trust fund to enjoy fresh fish and meat. Seriously, does anyone actually eat the meat from C-Town ? Cereal & canned foods yes, meat - hello no. I totally get the animosity against the trust fund babies but just because you've lived here 20-30 years (such as I) doesn't mean you can't have a good paying job and enjoy some of the finer things in life without woohoo-ing down the street at night.

The Associated is over priced! If I'm going to spend $6.99 on strawberries I'd like not have them be moldy... better yet go up to whole foods and get two cartons for $6. Time and time again these grocery stores have put expired foods, rotten meat, and moldy produce on their shelves for a premium! $3.99 for a box of spaghetti noodles? If I'm going to spend that much I'm going to a place that actually cares about what's on the shelf

anonymous, really! "a better shopping experience for a better class of people."i hope you are not serious and suggesting that having a lot of discretionary money makes one a member of a better class.today's standards that genuflect to diamond studded teeth and 14K gold baby toys does not reflect a better class. it only reflects a bigger pocket and possibly a smaller brain.

Whole Foods gets a bad rap. I learned that during the blackout when I went up to Lightsville to buy groceries, at a place called Morton Williams on 2nd ave. The high prices were staggering. The place made the Whole Foods seem like some kind of discount store, and I'm talking item for item. Whoever this Morton Williams is, he is a price gouger. And the produce was pretty lousy. How does he get away with it? After that I pledged to never complain about WF's prices. If you have half a brain and know how to spot a bargain, the WF might be the best grocery deal in town.

Yunnies will be retired once yunnies stop being yunnies. Places like Whole Foods and Union Market are perfect for the yunnies since everything has been thought out and decided for them.

Union Market providing jobs is akin to Starbucks and Duane Reade providing jobs. To those who argue that it's better than a bank, pharmacy, nightlife spots, bars, empty storefronts, etc. is as inane of an argument as "if you don't like______, then move to _____". Remember when Trader Joe's employees were "nice" when they first opened. Now, they have these employees who most likely couldn't get employment at Starbucks or Duane Reade. Bait and hook, what yunnies are sucker for. And the bodegas were open during the Storm, serving the community. Union Market will only serve the self entitled moneyed transients

Union Market is just a high-priced bodega. They stock expired and low-quality products as well. But since it's stock at a "sterile", trendy, bland, market, yunnies and yuppies will gobble them up thinking they are a better class of people. And better class just means people who can't think for themselves and just follow the trendsetters.

To those who argues that it's a great addition to the neighborhood, Union Market is dividing the neighborhood more.

Young Urban Narcissist here. Love the place. Want weird old LES type people to decide to stay at Key Food and Associated because they hate me so much. They want a bodega instead of this place? WTF. It's a full-blown grocery store with beautiful produce - nicer stuff than anything you can get east of Second Avenue south of 14th. Another bodega? Seriously? Also, there are about 20 people working in this store at a time. When was the last time 20 people worked in a bodega? Argh weird old rent stabilized wish CBGB hadn't closed I love the Ramones douches, just be quiet.

heritage meats is pretty good meat and the folks that work there are very friendly.just don't forget that their expensive heritage meat replaced a butcher that had been there for generations.the rent at essex street is probably prohibitive. the city markets were created to provide health foods for working folks at reasonable prices. too bad they too have become obsolete or trendy.

"Young Urban Narcissist here" - you have proven with your post why we old fools hate you so much.

Hate to break it to you, but Heritige Meats & Essex Market are being moved South to Seward Park by the city, which CB3 endorsed. The city's development wings are driving the old guard out of the neighborhood with tax abatements for Condos, East Houston refurbishment, zoning changes, building height wavers, hotel incentives, etc, as they try to drive up the tax roll. As a not so young urban pro and condo owner, even I'm surprised by the pace of change. This hood is earmarked to become the new Soho...but don't blame us. My ballot on election day at my Ave C polling location was almost 100% democrats running unopposed. You guys voted them in. Btw, I think Union Market is a great addition, but will admire your resolve if you still walk another 5 blocks south to Heritage after it's moved.

Young Urban Narcissist, more like young suburban transplant but still a narcissist -- the YUSNie. Let us know if you still love this place two years from now, or if you're still in the area by then. This market exists because of the YUSNies trust-funders who have recreated the EV in their image, a mirror of who they are, which they genuinely love.

If the greedy landlords did and do not push-out mom and pop shops such as a butcher or fish shops in place and favor of condos, chains, bars, and places such as Union market, then there's no need to be missing the fish and meat market markets.

To the yuppie gentrifier of 10 yrs. ago, were you eating organic kale 10 yrs. ago? No, I didn't think so. It's a trend, and so is this market.

The arguments for this market are as vapid and smug as the people who would be frequently shopping here.

This area was a war zone when I moved here in 1992. You wouldn't go east of 1st Ave, unless you cabbed it. Nearly all the development to date has been on vacant lots, gas stations and single floor garage buildings. We have more police, fewer rats and yes, better food choice. I'd be more concerned about the talk of Meat Packing bottle bars moving out here.

Young Urban Narcissist here. First, I was also the person who suggested Heritage Meats, old fool who hates me so much. People like me support local businesses like Heritage and Saxelby and Russ & Daughters (I know, not fresh fish, I hear you) and bodegas too, and probably with more purchases than other people. This market just makes the neighborhood more attractive, which will mean I will continue to stay here.Honestly, I love the LES, the East Village and Chinatown, and I don't think your views, old fool, are in any way representative of people who live here. And let me cut you off before you even suggest that I only befriend people who are part of the gentrification wave - it's not true, I don't have a trust fund and earned everything I've got, and for what it's worth, I've always liked kale. I am also a good neighbor and generally kind to others. So why, exactly, do you want me and the businesses I support to leave? You don't make any sense.

I'm not old and definitely not a narcissist, but please have respect for the old or those that was here before you and your trust-fund move in. You're not going to be young forever and that trust-fund or investors' fund will dry out, which would leave you shopping at Food Lion or Jewel-Osco, and you realizing that your life is so insignificant without consuming that overpriced artisanal food.

"This area was a war zone when I moved here in 1992. You wouldn't go east of 1st Ave, unless you cabbed it."You got some bad advice. I've lived here for 35 years and have walked all the streets in the neighborhood up, down, east and west. Too bad your fear and paranoia kept you from exploring.

Just did a quick walk-through and eyeballed inventory and prices. Seems inline with Whole Foods, a few Essex food stalls, West Village butchers & fish mongers, Foragers in Brooklyn, etc. And it has to be cheaper than Gracefully on Avenue A, the most inflated grocery prices in the neighborhood.

What does the neighborhood truly gain? A quality fish monger. The East Village previously had none, and Essex does not provide sustainable fish. Whole Foods fish counter is too generic and not very sustainable - the best place to buy fish previously was the Tompkins farmers market on Sunday.

It looks like Union will be a great place to stop in after work for those who buy in small doses and enjoy food shopping. I would rather support a smaller family grocery store which originated in Brooklyn than pour money at the über crowded, über yuppified and über over-rated Whole Paycheck.

"This area was a war zone when I moved here in 1992. You wouldn't go east of 1st Ave, unless you cabbed it."

Oh brother, what a pussy! Or did you mean to type "1982"? I've lived on 3rd st near Ave C since 1991 and while it was, admittedly, pretty rough back then, I didn't need a cab or an armed guard to get home at all hours of the day or late night, and I'm still alive. If you were afraid to even walk to Ave A back then, you really missed out on an amazingly fun era in the East Village.

@Glenn, watch episodes of Law & Order from the 90s. Most of the murderers on the show were in the EV/LES for a reason. Taz at Guernica was murdered on your doorstep. In the past five years, we've had 2 shoot outs on Houston that shot out windows in our building. 5 people have been murdered near Stanton & Attorney in the past year. I welcome gentrification and Union Market.

I don’t know, jury is still out I guess. Picked up a jar of their brand of Tomato & Basil Sauce for $3.99, not a bad price. I know, no real paisan buys jarred sauce. Guilty as charged. The fresh pie prices seem OK. $.50 clams! The staff seems nice. I regaled and entertained the young lady cashiers of my late 70’s and 80’s clubbing days of debauchery and blow. Got some good laughs. By the way, they all hate the jazz music being played. I told them it was an acquired taste :)

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